Thanks for this. The sounds is great and the show is awesome. Anything less than 5 stars is just crazy talk. But everyone does deserve an opinion. Peace and Love.

This end-of-tour show is known for one thing: Phil goofing off during Space. Coming the night after the "Earthquake Space", it's been called the Raven Space for a long time, though that's being generous. Makes sense though: when I think of Baltimore the first two people that come to mind are Waters and Poe. It was their last time at Royal Farms Arena, coming back after two years [though they played the area twice in '81, closer to DC]. This was the sight of one of their best shows ever [9/17/72], and another landmark show [5/25/72]. But after this they played Merriweather Post or the Cap. The night is tired and flat in sections - the opposite of 4/6/82, the show you want to start with from this tour. The Jer songs are best; the rep of the Space is bigger than the actual performances.

First Set. If you go to soundcheck, and then you sound like this on your first song, it's time to demote someone. The mix never does fully improve on either the SBDs or front of house. Phil is absent and the vox dominate. A nice enough They Love Each Other is the peak of the set; the rest is average to below average. Little Red Rooster is okay, until Bobby's Slide Practice™ anyway. Cumberland is GOGD. Dewiminna has a false start, to retard the tempo, but is ultimately uninvolved. Might as Well is ragged.

Second Set. Nothing was fixed over the break. Feel Like a Stranger has a bad mix, though the jam is good. Franklin's is stilted in places and Jer searches for better tone, cycling through mods 12:10>12:30. Estimated has Bobby's end-of-tour non-singing (all night he dramatizes vox to cover other disparities), but musically it's tighter than the 1st set. SBDs have a 15sec reel flip @~4:50 in Terrapin, so use the MTX. One of the best of the Jer songs, here Brent is key. During Space Phil "acknowledges" Poe, whose grave/memorial is just three blocks away (the elaborate Hippodrome is just a block away, but they never played it). The Raven was watershed for 1845, and remains the most well known long narrative poem in the English language, along with Rime [Coleridge]. But hopefully you weren't expecting a recital à la Lou Reed - this amounts to playing with a mic. It has little to do with Raven, and is not good. The only actual quote from the poem is "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore'". The rest is gibberish, and "It was a dark and stormy night" is actually Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The Wheel is a very mellow version. It has no tension, though you can hear Phil now (barely) on both SBDs and AUDs. Truckin' features scattershot playing, muffed lyrics. The set peak is a solid Stella. A vapid Good Lovin' is then made turgid by Bobby's drama-vox. Brokedown is as flat as can be, but they make up for a bad mix and some sloppy playing with a nearly 2hr set.

1st Set:  C
2nd Set: C-
Overall = 2¼ stars

Highlights:
Space - though more of a history ticklister

SOURCES: The 144567_sbd_healy_streeter is a slight improvement of tobin_89313 & clugston_2316, but still needs heavy-handed EQ. It has a muffed patch in Truckin', so use the matrix there (the tobin_89314 MTX is preferable in many places). No sources have Phil until late in the second set, and the AUDs are as good as the SBDs (try warner_19420).

amazing sound! amazing show.

Thanks for the work putting this together, perfect soundtrack for making an omelette on a rainy Saturday morning.